- Antler VR headsets with attitude, hand-written letters to those we think differently from (eg Donald Trump), AI bots that cut through social media silos to see what we really think of Brexit, and an animated digital opera are early ideas of artists
- Artists, creatives, academics and technologists to work together as never before
- Exceptional opportunities for UK artists to engage with Cambridge’s world-leading engineers and academics and apply for commissions
- To create ambitious artworks that engage the public; major showcase spring 2019
The programme is run by Cambridge-based Collusion, which works at the intersection of arts, technology and human interaction. The programme, in_collusion, is a large and ambitious £1million-funded arts-tech programme that takes place over the next two years. It aims to catalyse artistic reflection and debate, enhance digital skills, generate experimental new work and deepen public engagement with and understanding about the potential impact of technology on society – specifically artificial intelligence (AI), data culture and virtual and augmented reality. The project will also explore many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, such as reducing climate change and inequality, and examine how technology might impact these goals – as well as helping us achieve them.
First ideas from artists: chat bots, letters and digital opera
At the programme launch, an audience of 40 heard the first round of ideas development from 9 artists (short-listed from 112 applicants) following a week-long lab on data culture. Two artists have focussed on the need, in an age of polarised views, for us to build bridges with those who think differently from us – to step out of the self-reinforcing environment created by Twitter and Facebook: Hwa Young Jung proposes rekindling the lost art of letter writing to connect outside of the social ‘silo’ and has written by hand a letter to President Trump and others.
Henry Driver wants to create an AI ‘chat bot’ to audit what the population really thinks and encourage discussion between both sides of the debate on Brexit. While Jo Lawrence proposes writing a 13-minute animated digital opera <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/ inspired by computer code; she will devise a new musical language from the forward slashes, parentheses and dots in code, that will each have their own sound. It will be populated by puppets using stop motion animation (pictured). Richard Dedominici wants to create VR headsets in the shape of antlers for Cambridge museum visitors, via which they can travel back in time.
in_collusion is large scale. It will run more than 100 workshops, commissions and events. It will bring together some of the UK’s best artists and top academics together – including sociologists, philosophers – and world-leading engineers from ARM and Cambridge Consultants. In doing so it will aim to inspire and support artists as they create new work focused on the key technological challenges facing society, such as:
● Can AI make better decisions for humans than humankind? How might this affect the way we live our lives and our view of the world?
● What risks and opportunities for individuals and society come from the ‘escapism’ of a totally immersive ‘ideal’ virtual world?
● One outcome of automation is fewer or different kinds of jobs for humans. How do we prepare for this new world when everyone should have more time for leisure and other activities?
● What areas of data-culture are ripe for creative people and how could this disrupt current approaches?
Cambridge Consultant and ARM take hands on role
Cambridge Consultants and ARM will take a hands-on role in this initiative. Their engineers and technologists will collaborate with artists by offering technical expertise to support the creation of new artworks.
“Technology is playing a major role in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and this partnership is a natural fit with our mission to help create sustainable technologies to enable opportunities for a globally-connected population,” said Dominic Vergine, head of sustainability and corporate responsibility, ARM. “ARM’s collaboration with Cambridge Consultants and Collusion in the in_collusion project will allow the ever-important issue of technology’s impact on society to be explored in a bold, innovative way.”
In total there will be at least 10 major projects, such as artist commissions; 15 small-scale R&D projects, including advancing ideas and developing prototypes and 80 events, featuring technical workshops, labs and seminars.
Tim Murdoch, Director of Digital Services explains why this is important to Cambridge Consultants: “What excites us most about the in_collusion programme is the potential to combine the skills of our designers and engineers with extraordinary artwork to challenge traditional views of technology and innovation.”
The programme will culminate with a major public event, planned for spring 2019, showcasing the new artistic works.
Why artists and technology?
Collusion’s Directors Rachel Drury and Simon Poulter said: “Technological advances are constantly transforming the way we live. Many of us are already engaging with the first generations of ‘dumb’ AI such as Siri and Alexa, whilst games such as Pokémon Go and PlayStation’s RIGS are bringing virtual and augmented reality technologies into the home. A healthy society has the ability to examine itself, ask questions and learn as it progresses change, and we think that bringing artists, technologists and academics together through art is the best way to do this. It can lead to extraordinary results. Artists often see the world differently. Their thinking has immense value as they are happy to disrupt and challenge norms and suggest alternatives.”
Cambridge Consultants and ARM join Collusion’s other major programme partners: Arts Council England and the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership and project partners Anglia Ruskin University and University of Cambridge Museums. in_collusion will also engage with academics from the University of Cambridge including from the Judge Business School and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future Intelligence, a new research institute exploring the impact of AI.
Francis Runacres, Executive Director, Innovation and Enterprise, Arts Council England, said: “Arts Council England is pleased to support Collusion's innovative in_collusion programme. The organisation’s deep connections with the technology sector has enabled the team to bring together arts and technology in a really powerful creative partnership. We look forward to seeing the range of ideas about the role of technology in society that emerge from it.”
For artists interested in taking part, in_collusion will run two more week-long labs on VR and AI, with further opportunities to develop small R&D projects from ideas generated at the labs. There is also a major commissioning programme, launching October 2017, when Collusion will work with selected artists to create four to six ambitious new works over a year.
More information can be found at www.collusion.org.uk and by following @in_collusion.
Collusion’s mission is to build an international profile for the Cambridge area as a R&D centre for interdisciplinary arts and technology collaboration – one that engages artists, creatives, academics and technologists to work together as never before. It will deliver broad outcomes, including exceptional artwork that could only have been produced in Cambridge that could tour nationally and internationally.
For artists interested in taking part, in_collusion will run two more week-long labs, with further opportunities to develop small R&D projects from ideas generated at the labs. There is also a major commissioning programme, launching October 2017, when Collusion will work with selected artists to create four to six ambitious new works over a year.
Collusion is also working with artists and creative industries across five sites in the Greater Cambridge area – Bury St Edmunds, Huntingdon, King’s Lynn, Peterborough and Wisbech – to build public activities that support enterprise and innovation through the creative exploration of AI, data culture, virtual and augmented reality. While not a traditional business support package, in_collusion will inspire people to develop innovative new approaches to their work supported by new skills in both art and technology. The programme will support talent development, knowledge transfer across sectors and the creation of new products and services. There will be a professional development programme of free talks, tech workshops and seminars for artists, technologists and creatives taking place across the locations.
Collusion is looking for artists, creatives, technologists and hybrids thereof with tech and other relevant skills to apply to become ‘Creative Associates’, forming a pool of experts who will be drawn upon to deliver aspects of the programme. The call-out for Creative Associates will open in early February at www.collusion.org.uk.
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Press enquiries. Please contact Charlotte Sankey at Creative Warehouse on 01223 781570 or 07957 327868.
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